Ever-growing landfills present a major environmental concern. A high demand exists for technologies that reduce accumulation of waste by using waste material to create useful and functional objects. Accordingly, the recycling industry is one of the fastest growing industries today. About 35 percent of waste deposited in landfills consists of paper and paperboard products. In an attempt to reduce this accumulation of waste, a major effort in the printing industry centers on the collection and recycling of paper and paper products. U.S. Pat. No. 5,265,561 to Crawford and U.S. Pat. No. 5,749,998 to Skinner, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference, are two examples of patents that address the issue of accumulating waste. In particular, Skinner describes the potential in the strength of corrugated cardboard, by creating a thick corrugated web that may be used in the shipping industry and as a structural component. Crawford describes absorbent qualities of cardboard in an industrial application of waste clean-up. Crawford also addresses waste disposal problems, acknowledging that wood pallets and cardboard are deposited and accumulated in landfills at an alarming rate.
Although existing technologies utilize some of the qualities of corrugated cardboard, it has been discovered that there is a need for methods and products that utilize the aesthetic qualities of corrugated cardboard in combination with its structural features to expand recycling possibilities, as described below.